


Bits and Pieces

by Leafshadow2



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Grief/Mourning, Kakashi is a hopeless romantic, M/M, Not Quite Drabbles, Romance, Some Of These Will Be Happy But Most Won't Be, Tentative feelings, Unrequited Love, Various themes, Wishful Thinking, various pairings - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28932231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leafshadow2/pseuds/Leafshadow2
Summary: Collection of one-shots about various pairing with various themes.In the aftermath of the war, Tenten makes a visit.Ino unwittingly captures Sai's attention.Kakashi should have known better, but he's a hopeless romantic and old habits die hard.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Shiranui Genma, Hyuuga Neji/Tenten, Sai/Yamanaka Ino
Kudos: 21





	1. What Could Have Been (NejiTen)

**Author's Note:**

> Where, unfortunately, Neji didn't make it

“I hate you,” she claimed, voice breaking as her knees all but gave out.

Tenten sank down to the grass below. Sobbing, she wrapped her arms around her legs, face falling to rest on her knees as tremors overtook her frame.

She hated that the one person she wanted beside her most was cold and six feet underground. She hated that in place of his infuriatingly proper manners there was a slab of rock. She hated that she couldn’t seem to stop her tears. But most of all, she hated knowing that she could—and _would_ be forced to—live her life without him. It hurt, and she just wanted the seemingly endless pain within her to go away.

She would give anything to be able to break his stupid, uptight composure once again. To watch a faint blush creep into his usually stoic face as she whispered suggestive things in his ear. Or to see the depths of everything he left unsaid in his eyes when he looked at her with such soft, tender emotion in the early mornings when the world was quiet and calm.

“You told me that we’d come home together. That we would…”

Tenten’s words trailed off as thoughts of what could have been haunted her yet again. She had been left with the empty promises of a future that had been forever stolen from her.

Swallowing, she stared at his name carved in stone with a watery gaze. “I don’t hate you,” she admitted softly, voice wavering. “I could never hate you. I just wish that you were here.”

She jammed a kunai into the ground beside the grave—Neji had always known that she preferred them to flowers, after all—before standing up.

She walked away slowly, wishing that he would tell her one last time that he would be there to help her endure anything that troubled her.

But stones couldn’t talk.


	2. Palette (InoSai)

There was just something about how passionately Ino lived her life that captured his attention. The range of strong emotions and expressions that she displayed in mere minutes fascinated him.

Fascinated and drew him in.

She lived so fully, with an excess of what he himself lacked. Sai could spend the rest of his life observing her flashing smiles and cool temper, living vicariously through her, and never grow bored.

While he felt like a blank canvas—empty, yet with unrealized potential—she embodied the bright, bold strokes of paint that breathed life into artwork. The utter confidence with which she held herself around others, never hesitating to be herself…she was everything that he wished he could be.

As he watched her from across the table that they and their group of friends were gathered at, Sai found himself wanting to experience that same full range of emotions. To fully experience the world around him instead of feeling like a mere observer most of the time. 

And when her rose-colored lips curled into an alluring smile directed his way, the most curious sensation flared to life within him.


	3. Old Habits (KakaGen)

Kakashi pressed a lingering kiss to a muscular shoulder, tasting the salty residue of sweat as his lips caressed the warm skin. He closed his eyes as fingers stroked through his hair, wanting to believe that the gentle gesture meant more than it did. The Copy Nin craved these soft, quiet moments where far-fetched notions felt possible.

Eventually, he was forced to move his head from its resting place on Genma’s arm when the other man sat up. He watched the brunet recline against the bed’s headboard and grab the senbon that rested on the nightstand. Genma started toying with the needle as soon as it reached his mouth as a result of his—mostly successful—attempt at quitting smoking. He had told Kakashi once that he always craved a cigarette after sex. The senbon currently between his lips proved that old habits died hard. 

Still laying on his side, Kakashi traced a finger along the scars scattered across the tokubetsu’s chest. The Copy Nin gave more of his attentive touch to a particularly new one. The recently mended skin still looked angry and red. His wandering fingers paused when he felt Genma’s heartbeat under his hand, its steady pace comforting.

Without thinking, the words slipped out.

“I love you, you know.”

Genma stopped rolling the senbon between his teeth—never a good sign—as he turned to stare at him. Kakashi wanted to look away, sinking feeling settling in his stomach when the other shinobi cupped his cheek. It was bittersweet torture when a thumb stroked back and forth across his lower lip. The full, bottom lip that Genma had always enjoyed capturing between his teeth.

“You make me want to believe everything that you say,” Genma said with a smile that looked forced.

His light, teasing tone didn’t match the somber look in his dark eyes.

Genma had been upfront from the very beginning about what he was and wasn’t looking for, but the Copy Nin had foolishly thought that he would be able to make the other have a change of heart. Kakashi had always been a romantic, but one-sided affections were best left between the pages of a book. Romantic fool that he was, Kakashi had gone and fallen—the only one to do so.

After all, old habits died hard. 


End file.
